Love's Labor's Lost
by Strictly Classified
Summary: Someone keeps sending Lily flowers for Christmas. And the culprit is oh-so-obviously James Potter. Or so it seems...


Summary: Someone keeps sending Lily flowers for Christmas. And the culprit is obviously James Potter. Or so it seems...

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**_1_****_st_****_ year_**

During her first Christmas at Hogwarts, she received a Charms textbook from Alice, more books from her parents, a Gryffindor red and gold scarf from Marlene, Honeydukes chocolate from Dorcas, and a bouquet of purple lilacs. The bouquet was unsigned, and Alice giggled girlishly when she saw it.

"Looks like you have a secret admirer, Lily," she laughed, glancing at the flowers and waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Lily Evans blushed brilliantly to the roots of her fiery red hair.

"Lily has a boyfriend, Lily has a boyfriend!" Dorcas taunted good-naturedly, but withered under the force of Lily's intense glare.

"Wait, it's snowing!" Marlene exclaimed, ever the peacemaker. The girls rushed to the window to see white flakes falling gently to the ground.

The lilacs lay forgotten near the Common Room fire, and when Lily came back, they were already gone.

**_2_****_nd_****_ year_**

By the time her second Christmas at Hogwarts rolled around, the last vestiges of the Lilac Incident had faded from Lily's memory. This year, she received a book about hair charms from Marlene, a magical watch from Alice, a diary from Dorcas, another book from Anna, and a desk set from the Evans.

"I got a Nimbus 700 this year!" Dorcas Meadowes grinned. "It's the newest model!"

"Well, I got the Nimbus 750!" James Potter, bane of Lily Evans' life, announced proudly, his coterie of three trailing behind him. "Anyone want to take a ride?" He smirked as several boys in his year formed a huddle around him and cooed over the broomstick appreciatively. Dorcas wilted.

She sighed, "I guess my Nimbus isn't that special after all."

"Don't worry, Dorcas," Lily comforted, sending another one of her patented glares in James Potter's general direction. "He's an arrogant toerag. Your broom is amazing, really."

"You think?" Dorcas brightened immediately. "Want to go flying, then?"

Lily gulped. "Um, I still have some presents to open…"

"C'mon, Lily. Live a little!" Dorcas dragged a still-protesting Lily away from the dorms.

In the corner of the Gryffindor second-year female dorms where the presents were supposed to be, there was a bouquet of alstroemerias. A piece of parchment propped up next to it read:

_Forever_

The bouquet was not discovered until weeks and weeks later by which time the flowers had shriveled and left only dust. Lily picked up the parchment and saved it as a curiosity, a relic from her second year at Hogwarts.

**_3_****_rd_****_ year_**

Her third Christmas at Hogwarts wasn't anything out of the usual, other than the fact that she had begun making more friends in Gryffindor. Anna had transferred to Beauxbatons, and Marlene had gotten her first boyfriend, Frank Longbottom. Admittedly, she had spent less time with Severus than she used to, but she reassured herself with thoughts that she would speak to him more over summer break. That terrible James Potter, rakish Sirius Black, and the rest of their cohort kept bullying Severus, and she felt he must be lonely. After all, she didn't see him with anyone or anything, for that matter, other than his Potions book.

Deep in thought, Lily didn't notice a tawny-feathered school owl tapping at the window. The owl teetered precariously in the air, at breaking point, before dropping its load in a last act of self-preservation.

Somewhere out in the snow lay a single red chrysanthemum. It bled out onto ice, crimson tears of sorrow that blew themselves away with the spring.

_**4th year**_

Oh, how she hated that horrid James Potter!

Potter and Black had seen it fit to send her a love letter for her fourth year. Lily ranted to Alice, who closed her eyes in utter boredom.

"Relax, Lily. It was just a practical joke," she advanced tentatively.

"How dare they! How dare they!" Lily paced, face as bright as her hair.

The letter crumpled in her unforgiving grip.

"But what did they write?" Alice asked curiously. "It must be _something_ if it's got your knickers in a twist."

Lily gave her friend a dirty look and thrust the rumpled paper at her.

_Roses are red,_

_Violets are blue,_

_Lilies are lovely,_

_And so are you._

_Will you go out with me next Hogsmeade weekend?_

_From your husband-to-be,_

_James Potter (and his best man, Sirius Black)_

"So, will you?" Alice asked. "Maybe he's your Secret Admirer from the Lilac Incident!"

"No, he can't be," Lily replied distractedly. "Number One, he's Potter. Number Two, that's just disgusting. Number Three, he'd never pass up an opportunity to actually sign a gift."

"You never know…," Alice trailed off, gazing speculatively at the Love Letter. "It certainly sounds romantic enough. Just the thing he'd do."

In the discussion, neither noticed the ribbon-tied bunch of violet heather that rested innocuously in the communal present pile. No one bothered to claim it, and a House Elf eventually cleared the rotting remains of the flowers out, along with the accompanying bit of parchment that said:

_And_

as though the writer had been writing something and had been continuing to write something, but neither end of the full thought could be salvaged.

**_5_****_th_****_ year_**

Her fifth year at Hogwarts marked a time for change. Severus wasn't talking to her anymore, and Lily was worried. For the first time, he wasn't alone. Instead, he was hanging out with Slytherins like Rosier, Mulciber, Malfoy, and Nott. The five skulked around the hallways, were constantly smirking, and seemed to be plotted Something Big. Lily didn't know what the Something Big was, but she knew it probably wasn't good and if it wasn't Good, she did not was Severus involved. That year, she received the usual group of presents, but something strange occurred. On Christmas morning, an owl descended and rested next to her breakfast plate, bringing with it a single daffodil. The corresponding parchment read:

_Always_

Lily scowled darkly and banished the gift. No doubt Potter was behind this fiasco.

"Stop sending me these or I'll report you to the Headmaster for harassment," she threatened, tapping Potter on the shoulder. "I expect not to see your stupid flowers again next Christmas."

"Huh?" was Potter's only intelligent answer as he gaped after Lily's retreating back.

"What the bloody hell was that about?" he asked Padfoot, Wormtail, and Moony, after the girl had left earshot. "Flowers?"

Padfoot shook his head slowly, affecting disappointment. "Prongs, you know the definite answer to any situation when a woman starts acting loco."

"What?" Prongs asked, confused.

"PMS, mate, PMS," Padfoot nodded sagely.

"But flowers?" Prongs frowned. "Wonder where she got those from."

"It's obvious, mate," Padfoot smirked mischievously. "Uncle Alphard told me about these Muggle things he uses sometimes to get high. Maybe dear Evans is taking LSD. Uncle Alphie did say they caused hallucinations."

The only sound in an otherwise sedate Great Hall was the sound of Sirius Black's jaw cracking.

_**6th year**_

Lily got an extra present that year; Professor Slughorn had gifted her with a box of crystallized pineapple. Frank Longbottom had openly dumped Marlene and was now going out with Alice, causing Marlene to cry all night for a week and avoid Alice like the plague. Between both stubborn teenagers, Lily was ready to explode.

The bouquet of white carnations and its stupid parchment did quite nicely, and soon enough, white petals floated haphazardly over Lily's bedcovers. Going down to the Common Room and punching James Potter in the nose was even more satisfying.

"You gave me flowers, again!" Lily roared, emerald eyes blazing.

"What?" James asked, baffled. But with his nose broken, it came out as "Gud?"

Lily whirled around, crimson hair flying, and stomped up to her dorm room angrily.

James flicked his wand, and his nose rearranged itself, blessedly. Pain ebbed away.

"You're not going to say it's PMS again, Padfoot, right?" he questioned wearily.

"Right, mate," Padfoot replied, glancing warily from the girls dorm to his friend. "Either she just hates you or she's a psychopath."

**_7_****_th_****_ year_**

James Potter wasn't so bad when she got to know him.

Well, really know him. She blushed, thinking about the previous night. She had gotten drunk, and then… Then there was a blank spot in her memory filled only by moans, whispers, and jolts of unimaginable pleasure. And his face. And the hickey on her neck made it quite obvious that Lily Evans, uptight and downright prudish Head Girl had indeed Gotten Some last night. Rita Skeeter had made it known to everyone by breakfast time.

Lily thought it was odd that everyone seemed to know more about Last Night than she did.

"How's my favorite flower today?" James Potter sauntered in to the gasps and sighs of the majority of the girls in the Great Hall.

Lily blushed fiercely and wished that she could become one with the earth. "Fine, Potter," she muttered.

"No curses? No spells? No hexes? It appears that…"

"Potter, if one more word comes out of your mouth…"

"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me?" James asked, hazel eyes sincere and hopeful.

Surprised and shocked momentarily, Lily looked down, debated. She could hex Potter now…

_"Yes."_

**_Epilogue: One Year Later_**

Mr. Potter and his fiancee, one Ms. Evans, were presently located in Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor. James had decided to get chocolate, while Lily had purchased strawberry, and James was nervously swigging down a bottle of firewhiskey for no visible reason. Lily rolled her eyes.

_Trust James Potter to smuggle alcohol into an ice cream shop._

Suddenly, James got down on his knees.

"What's up with you? Is this another dare Sirius thought up?" Lily asked, laughing. As she laughed, James noticed that her eyes crinkled up at the corners.

"Lily Marie Evans, will you marry me?" He crossed his fingers behind his back as he held out the Ring that he had been planning to give to her, the Love of his Life, for ages.

"Of course I will, James Potter!" Lily squealed excitedly, though she would later deny to ever do such a thing.

James smiled, a smile that lit up the entire hallway in its brilliance, picked up Lily by the waist, and swung her around in elation.

Watching covertly from the inside of Flourish and Blotts, a tiny part of Severus Snape died. His anticipatory, hopeful, triumphant smile slid off his gaunt face, and his normally-sallow cheeks were suddenly damp. The singular Calla Lily that he held in his hands drooped and drifted to the ground from his loose grip.

"You did give me the flowers, didn't you?" Lily asked, eyes bright, waiting.

"Yes?" James replied, bewildered, but willing to accommodate Lily's…erm, condition.

Snape's mouth gaped, and open and shut his mouth several times. He almost thought to give away his position to yell "It was I, not stupid Potter!" but was too taken-aback to emit a single word.

The soon-to-be Potters walked away into the bright sunlight of the afternoon, glowing and radiant in newfound happiness.

A tear rolled down Snape's cheek, down his chin, and dripped onto the dusty floor. His blackly inscrutable eyes glazed off in melancholy and a piece of parchment, the final piece, fell to the ground.

_Forever and always._

_From_

_Severus_

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A/N: Review please! For cookies and +1 karma! :) Constructive criticism is not only welcome, but also appreciated.

Thank you for reading.

Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling is the ultimate Lady of the H.P. universe. Unfortunately.

Citation: I got the flowers and their meanings from content/aboutflowers/flower-meanings. If you don't agree, go argue with them.

Bye! Have a great day! And review please!

~Strictly Classified~

Extra Notes: To Professor Radar: Yeah, I realize that after you pointed it out; it does sound quite unlikely. So I changed the epilogue's scene. Do you think that's better, or equally unlikely?

To emzybones: Thank you! :)


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